Dr. Mehmet Oz, a physician and TV personality, was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate to lead the CMS, the federal agency responsible for providing health insurance to more than 160 million people.
The 53 to 45 vote to confirm Oz fell along party lines. Two Democrats, Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., did not vote.
He will take the reins of the CMS at a turbulent time for federal health programs and agencies after the HHS, which oversees the CMS, announced last week it would cut cut 10,000 full-time employees in a major restructuring. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the recently appointed HHS secretary, said 300 CMS employees would lose their jobs in the layoffs.
Republican lawmakers are also weighing cuts to government spending, which could impact the safety-net insurance program Medicaid.
In February, the House passed a budget resolution that called for the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, to find $880 billion in savings.
This week, the Senate unveiled its own blueprint that maintained the Energy and Commerce saving target, while allowing the Finance Committee, which also has jurisdiction over those programs, to add up to $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit.
Oz, who will oversee Medicaid as well as Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces as CMS administrator, largely avoided questions on whether he would support cuts to the safety-net insurance program during a confirmation hearing last month.
However, he said he would support Medicaid work requirements, which tie eligibility for the insurance to work, volunteer or education hours.
Cuts to Medicaid could be politically challenging for Republicans, given their unpopularity with voters and worries among hospitals they could hit their bottom lines. Another coverage issue looming for lawmakers and regulators is more generous financial assistance for people who enroll in health plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, which expire at the end of the year.
Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, said the nation’s health was “only as strong as Americans’ health coverage” in a statement Thursday.
“It is [the] critical path to better care that we build on the progress made extending health coverage to a record number of Americans by supporting the renewal of the individual marketplace’s enhanced tax credits while protecting Medicaid and Medicare from unwarranted reductions,” he said. “At the same time, it’s also mission critical for the new Administrator to act on behalf of over half of Medicare beneficiaries and ensure Medicare Advantage does no harm, providing the care seniors need, when they need it.”
In a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., this week, Oz also said he would support President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders halting federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors.
Oz also said he believed the CMS could “simultaneously enforce” federal law mandating emergency care and “respect the many state laws” restricting abortion. Under the Biden administration, the HHS argued hospitals were required to perform abortions for emergency care, even in states that banned the procedure.
Democrats slammed the Oz nomination ahead of the vote before the Senate Finance Committee in late March, pointing to the potential Medicaid cuts.
Democrats had also previously criticized Oz for his advocacy for and financial ties to Medicare Advantage, the increasingly popular program where private insurers manage the care of Medicare beneficiaries.
However, he promised to scrutinize MA insurers in an effort to rein in costs in the program during his confirmation hearing, including by cracking down on upcoding by payers. Medicare will spend $84 billion more on MA enrollees this year than it would if those beneficiaries were in the traditional fee-for-service program, according to a report published last week by congressional advisory MedPAC.
